Last year, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ordered Google to remove links to two web pages, in a ruling that kicked off the Right to be Forgotten.
Shortly after Google introduced its Right to be Forgotten request form, the company received thousands of applications. What’s surprising, however, is that the main beneficiaries are members of the general public- not criminals, politicians and public figures.
Before reading on, however, keep this question in mind: should Americans, and everyone else outside of Europe, also have the right to be forgotten?
More than 95% of removal request from general public
According to leaked information by the Guardian, more than 95% of the close to 220,000 removal requests Google has received are from members of the general public. Only less than 5% of individual requests concern criminals, politicians and high-profile public figures. You check the data in details here.
Privacy is important to European citizens
Citizens wishing to protect their personal privacy made most of the requests. Of the 218,320 link removal requests between 29 May 2014 and 23 March 2015, 46% (101,461) were granted, with 99,569 involving “private or personal information,” the Guardian reports.
According to the report, these include a woman seeking removal of her address, for instance, or an individual who contracted HIV a decade ago.
Less than 1% of the total links removed, related to four other distinct groups, identified by Google as “serious crime”, “public figure”, “political” and “child protection”.
Information ‘leaked’
Google never released the data publicly. The information was hidden in the source code of Google’s own transparency report, which according to the Guardian, “covers more than three-quarters of all requests to date”.
A Google spokesperson, said in a statement: “The data The Guardian found in our Transparency Reports source code does of course come from Google, but it was part of a test to figure out how we could best categorize requests”. He added that the test was discontinued in March because “the data was not reliable enough for publication, he said, but the company is working on ways to improve its transparency reporting”.
Going back to our original question. Should Americans and everyone else across the world also have the right to be forgotten? Share your opinion in the comments section below.